Wednesday, January 03, 2007

painful

I'm supposed to give a talk tomorrow. I know everyone wants to hear about the book process, etc. Here's the problem. I don't want to talk about it! It's painful. Making a book is so exhausting and I put everything I have into it. No author or illustrator can say that a book goes smoothly from beginning to end. There are disagreements whether we like it or not. Some editors make the disagreements more like easy discussions while others don't. Either way, it's hard for me to rehash it.

Anyone else feel as I do or am I out there in left field?

meghan

p.s - I don't understand the saying "left field" since it's the right fielder who never gets the balls and can be completely out of it. I know since I was a super star leftfield softball player for years. Yes, I think very highly of my abilities.

7 comments:

I know what you mean, there is a lot thats painful and messy and not easy to sum up in a presentation. When I give those talks I usually try to focus on the positive, and if there was a lot of struggle with a particular book talk about how I delt with it- people love those kind of back stories, makes the process seem more real and easy to relate to. I'm sure you'll do great.

Tell ya what. I'll make you a deal. You sit home and sip a hot cup of joe and I'll do the talk for you. It's easy! They probably don't know what you look like, right? I'll make up all kinds of stuff and be ridiculously enthusiastic as "The Real Meghan McCarthy". Though, of course, by agreeing to this deal you also are giving me permission to make up stuff, i.e. "I can't paint anything without watching three episodes of Dynasty first."

You didn't mention whether you're speaking to kids or grownups, but I've found that when talking to kids, they seem to find a little bit of comfort/amusement in the fact that making a book can sometimes be a struggle. It often seems like a surprise to them that we "work" just like they do to get things right!

the talk is for adults. Fuse--I will take you up on the offer! It's probably too late this time but next time. I've been looking for the appropriate person to be my doppelganger. Perhaps you are the one. Can you wear really big pink hats? That's a plus. I did used to have to watch the Starting Over house before I got to work but I don’t know what happened to that show. Boo-hoo!

Of no real use in your real life, but no one really knows the origin of "out of left field." My favorite version is that it comes from folks who bought tickets to see Babe Ruth play... but bought seats in left field instead of right (where he played). I suspect it's more that left has always been "wrong" compared to right, but I prefer an anecdote any time.

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